RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. Combining radiation therapy with combination chemotherapy may kill more tumor cells.

PURPOSE: Randomized phase III trial to compare the effectiveness of radiation therapy with no radiation therapy following chemotherapy in treating patients with stage III or stage IV Hodgkin's disease.

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS: Histologically proven clinical or pathological Stage III/IV Hodgkin's disease Pathological Stage IIIAS disease with the spleen as the only site of subdiaphragmatic involvement excluded

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS: Age: 15 to 70 Performance status: Not specified Life expectancy: No severe limits on life expectancy due to nonmalignant disease Hematopoietic: Not specified Hepatic: Not specified Renal: Not specified Cardiovascular: No severe cardiac disease that would preclude protocol therapy Pulmonary: No severe pulmonary disease that would preclude protocol therapy Other: No severe metabolic or neurologic disease that would preclude protocol therapy No concomitant or previous second malignancy except: Nonmelanomatous skin cancer In situ carcinoma of the cervix

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY: No prior therapy

Contacts and Locations

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For general information, see Learn About Clinical Studies.

Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00002462